Philips SmartSleep Wake-Up Light Therapy Alarm Clock with Sunrise Simulation, White, HF3500/60

This is the best light-up alarm clock that I've used.PROS1. I can't sleep with light in the room, and even I can handle the time on this clock. I had assumed I’d be putting a post-it over it at bedtime, but it’s actually dim enough. When my GF visits, I turn the clock so that the side of the clock faces the bed. The time is so dim that it doesn’t create a glow anywhere visible.2. When you snooze, the light stays on.3. The beeps are not harsh or loud. I have a second alarm on my phone in case I miss the sound (it’s not super quiet, but I’m a sound sleeper). I’ve had this a week and haven’t needed the phone alarm – although I’m still using it because it reminds me that I need to get out of bed and not just sit there snuggling my kitty cat ;-)4. It’s attractive and looks nice on the side of my bed.5. I don’t have space for a bedside light, so I used to have to snap on a very bright overhead light as soon I woke up. It makes a great bedside clock that is very easy to turn off and on. I like that when I turn it off, it takes several seconds to reach total darkness. It’s the right amount of time to snuggle into bed.6. It’s more stable than I expected considering the shape of it.7. The light has a warm tint to it (unlike the regular bulb in my overhead light. The clock isn’t warm – just the color of the light when it turns on in the morning. It’s much nicer than if a regular lamp lights up (which is what my old light-up alarm clock did).CONS1. I have to change the time’s brightness depending on if it’s day or night. If it’s dark enough for sleeping then it isn’t visible during the day or if a full light is on. This wouldn’t be a big deal if the time’s brightness setting wasn’t set in a weird spot that requires me to use two hands.2. It takes up more space on my bedside table than my old alarm clock. The roundness means it actually takes up more space than just the space that immediately touches the table.3. It’s stable for me, but I live alone and have an older cat. I don’t think this would be stable if I still lived in a home with children, or if I had younger cats, this would probably be knocked over regularly. When I did have a visitor in my room, it was jostled enough that to be safe I had to place the clock on its back.4. The snooze is actually placed in a useful manner – just tap the top of the clock. However, I’m used to slapping the top of my alarm clock to snooze it (which this clock can’t handle). The clock and the sound and the light are new enough that I’m still remembering to tap instead of slap the clock, and hopefully that becomes second nature before the novelty of waking up to this clock happens.5. It’s white. I’m not sure if it will stay white over time. It’s such a beautiful clock, and I hope that it doesn’t stain as time goes on – I’m going to take a damp cloth to it every weekend when I clean house, so hopefully this doesn’t become an issue.Overall, the PROS far outweigh the CONS for my purposes, but if I still had a rowdy home with kids and cats and lots of adults and constant clatter this would be the wrong clock for me.

A Brighter Start to the DayI moved from Florida to Iowa in the dead of winter and needed something to help me get up on cold, dark mornings. This Phillips Wake-Up Light definitely does the trick. Because I wake up in a better way, I feel more rested and ready for a good start to the day. If you share my sleeping habits, it will work for you too.Wake-up ExperienceThose of us who are heavy sleepers understand how painful phone alarms can be. The sudden jolt interrupts your dreams and makes for a bad start to the day. With this product I wake up gradually and gently, and I actually remember my dreams! It’s also much easier to get out of bed when there is already light in the room. Trust me, if you’re the kind of person who struggles to flip the light switch in the morning, you’ll feel the difference too.AlarmIn case you don’t wake up with the light only, an alarm goes off at the end of the thirty minute “sunrise”. The sound is a standard beeping. Other reviewers have mentioned this sound bothers them, but I don’t have that problem. Because of the light, your body is already awake by the time the alarm goes off. So you’re not jolted out of a deep sleep, just prompted to open your eyes. And if you feel tempted to close them again, you can snooze the alarm for ten minutes by simply tapping the lamp’s surface.LightThe light is a high-quality yellow LED light, and you can adjust the brightness on a 1 to 10 scale to fit your light sensitivity. I would prefer if the lamp had more colors, like orange and red, so it would look more like a real sunrise. If this is very important to you, then you can buy a higher-end model of the same product at a higher price ($100-$120). But if you are a college student like me, this $70 model offers a great quality-price ratio that will get the job done without breaking your budget.DesignThe wake-up light has a sleek and elegant design that looks pretty and saves space on your nightstand. It is also safer because it does not heat up like your typical bedside lamp. I noticed some reviewers were concerned about fragility because the product is very light. Don’t worry! In my half-asleep clumsiness I have knocked it over several times, and it is still alive.Overall, this product makes for a much improved wake-up experience, and you’ll have a better day every day of the week as a result. I’m really happy with this purchase. If you’re anything like me, I’m sure you’ll love it too. The wake-up light is easy to use, affordably priced and well-designed, so there’s no reason not to give it a try!

I bought this alarm because I wake up easily when the sun is out, but a change in my job schedule made that impractical. I also wanted to get used to it in advance of wintertime, where I'd always wake up for work in the dark, an experience that left me miserable. Because I'm a chronic oversleeper, I paired this with the alarm app on my phone (SleepCycle, for iOS), just to make sure I woke up. I continue to use them together.After a month, I can firmly say it works for me. It has made 5AM wake-up times a lot more bearable. Because my alarm app wakes me up when I'm lightly sleeping, I don't feel jarred awake. The light makes me less likely to fall back into bed to snooze and since it comes on gradually, it doesn't feel like someone flipped the light switch on in my bedroom. That said, there are some usability issues - perhaps those are accounted for in the more expensive model - that make me unable to rate this five-stars.PROS: Warm, relaxing light. Simple (although maybe *too* simple?) controls. Quick set-up. Bright, easily legible clock-face. I don't find the clock bright enough to keep me awake and the brightness can be adjusted. Most importantly, it works to wake me up and keep me up.CONS: Unable to set a default "brightness" for your wake-up alarm. It took me a week or so to realize that the setting the light was on the last time it was turned off will be the setting used the next time your alarm is set. In other words, if you wake up with the light at a 2 out of 10 (because you woke before it turned on completely) and turn the light off, your alarm will default to brightening to a 2/10 level the next morning unless you manually change that setting. No option to have just the light, no alarm noise.